The Best Floor Tile Designs & Patterns to Consider in 2021

Whether you want to remodel your kitchen, bathroom, or any other area in your house, tile flooring is the best option. Floor tile designs replicate wood, stones, and other materials. They also come in various stylish and creative shapes and patterns to suit each person’s needs.

In 2021, decorative ceramic tiles are still a favorite option for many. They are not only durable but also practical. Suitable for use as water-repellant surface ideal for water prone areas. The gloss, ornaments, and saturation of colors make tiles more exciting and an option for transforming any room beyond belief.

The Leading Floor Tile Designs in 2021

1. Wood-Look Tiles

In the past, ceramic tile flooring resembled natural stone. However, over the years, tiles have evolved to disguising themselves as cool and trendy flooring. One of the trends that you will spot when shopping is the natural wood looks. Many manufacturers are adopting this chic trend of mimicking wood flooring trends.

Wood-look tile flooring gives your home a warm appearance. It also makes it more modern and provides the house with an expensive look. Since the tiles are more durable than the actual hardwood, it reduces your worry and maintenance cost.

There are various types of wood-like tile flooring in the market. Each kind comes with a unique character and style. Each style is distinguishing in texture and appearance. Some of the tile designs that you will spot include:

• Wire-brushed wood-look tiles: They have the appearance of subtle but deliberate wire scratches. As a result, the heart of the wood is left exposed to the surface. However, the intentional imperfections are smooth and consistent, giving the appearance of distressed wood looks.
• Distressed wood-look tiles: It can be mistaken for the previous wire-brushed type. However, it looks like it has gone through severe wear and tear. On it, you can see burns, scraps, wormholes, knots, and more. As a result, it appears more aged and antique.
• Rustic, hand-scraped wood-look tiles: It has an appearance of long-ingrained scraps. However, each plank varies, which makes it appear as though it has been handcrafted. This decorative aspect makes it appear rarer and more unique.

2. Marble-Look Tiles

Marble flooring has never gone out of style. The material has been the trending clean, elegant, and chic flooring option for centuries. However, it’s expensive, and it’s associated with elegance and class. If you want to avoid the price shock but still get that elegant appearance for your home, marble-look tiles are the way to go.

These tiles are less expensive but more durable and easily accessible, giving you the best of both worlds. Since marble is timeless, you can choose to remodel your bathroom with these tiles.

3. Stone-Look Tile Flooring

You can choose to use stone-look tiles for your bathroom or kitchen, another trend in 2021. People are increasingly looking for tiles with natural looks. As a result, manufacturers now have this stone-look style that is beautiful and convincing in its appearance. You can purchase tiles that look like slate, limestone, travertine, and more. They have a clean and elegant appearance to rival the wood-look tiles.

4. Concrete-Look Tile Flooring

Another modern floor tile design is the concrete-look tile. You will mostly find this design on countertops. Though most people choose warm rustic looks, there’s still room for that detached look that concrete-look tiles bring. This industrial concrete decorative trend is ideal for an apartment.

5. Decorative Tile Flooring

For those who want to express their personalities through tile flooring, they have not been left behind. Decorative tile flooring has cutting-edge graphic styles making your floor appear like an artist’s canvas. You can find these tiles in various designs, including art deco tiles or the Moroccan style. It is a bold style that most appeals to individual taste.

6. Terrazzo Tiles

Borrowed from the commercial spaces, the terrazzo look is now widespread in residential areas. Initially, the tiles were recycled from glass, marble, and concrete chips, creating a unique look. Currently, you can buy porcelain tiles in these designs.

7. Encaustic-Look Tile Flooring

Encaustic-look is one of the best tile floor designs. It’s found originally from ornate handcrafted flooring, which was quite expensive. However, currently, you can get this same craftmanship in more affordable tiles.

Whether you want chic, sleek or modern tile flooring designs, we have got you covered. You can purchase tiles that look like wood, marble, concrete, stone, or terrazzo, all to suit your style.

Trendy Tile Patterns in 2021

Tiles come in diverse colors, shapes, sizes, and textures that will meticulously blend with your interior décor and style to give a glamorous room space. After you’ve spent time looking for good quality tile and practically memorized the colors, there is yet another step to impact a subtle touch to your room space. What’s more? The design in which you will lay the tiles. In this article, you will explore various tile patterns that can genuinely add elegance to your interior space.

8. Straight or Stack Bond Tile Patterns

A straight pattern is the most common and straightforward technique of laying your tile. Whether you’re a beginner, DIY enthusiast, or a professional, the method is stress-free and requires no much tile cutting and setting. With this kind of tile-laying design, the grout lines always end up in a grid-like appearance. However, you should take a keen look at the batch numbers to avoid ending up with a mismatching set of tiles. Should you buy tiles of different batch numbers, a slight color difference may become conspicuous in the finished work. 

9. Diagonal Tile Pattern

The technique is at times referred to as the diamond laying pattern. The method is almost similar to the straight pattern, but the tiles are set in a diagonal design at an angle of 45-degree to create a diamond effect with the square tiles. Not to mention, the pattern brings the effect that makes even small rooms appear spacious since your eyes get focused on the wide angles of the grout lines as well as on the widest angles of the diamond.  The patterns are perfect for your bathroom and kitchen splashback when used with a border. However, the design involves a lot of tile-cutting at the corner. Moreover, the work requires some creative thinking as well.

10. Brick or Running Bond Tile Patterns

Like the straight pattern, the brick tile design is a simple and attractive option for your room space. With this kind of design, you should lay the tiles like bricks on the wall and get the end of each tile aligned with the center of the tile above and the tile below. This creates a staggered grout line. If you’re looking for a tiling pattern to hide the imperfections of your wall, the running bond is the best fit for your room space. Due to the offset grout lines, eyes cannot easily focus on minor imperfections. With this technique, you can add an illusion of height and space to your indoor space. Due to the feature mentioned above, you can use the tiling method in walkways and kitchen backsplash.

11. Herringbone

You can create the pattern by setting rectangular tiles in a 45^o angle V shape. With 100 years of popularity, herringbone creates an effect that makes a small room appear prominent visually. The full Vs create movement, drawing the eye outwards, thus creating the illusion of an extended space.

Moreover, the pattern blends artistically with neutral colors in a bathroom or narrow hallway though not suitable for large rooms. Since the design involves a lot of technical work, it would be tricky to take it the DIY way. We recommend the professional cheap tile flooring services that we offer for such designs.

12. Checkboard Patterns

The tiling technique alternates two tiles of the same square size either on a straight pattern or diagonally. While the design was iconic with black and white in the olden days, you can go for subtle colors and shades of your choice other than the old-fashioned black and white color.  For this tile-laying design, you should first use a chalk line to find the center of the room. You should dry lay the tiles on the floor before the tile-laying task begins to match the tiles. Also, you should cut the tiles at the perimeter of the floor. The pattern can be useful for a powerful tone contrast in small rooms such as the mudrooms and bathrooms.

13. Basketweave

The tile pattern gets its name from the basket weave look-like. With this design, you should lay the rectangular tiles next to each other to form a square and then put the other tiles at 90^o to the first one. With that arrangement, the horizontal and the vertical tiles alternate on the following rows to form the impression of the tiles woven over and under each other like a basket. The tiling pattern is suitable for small areas such as shower stalls or powder rooms. Since the design may be hectic to establish, the tiles come in mosaic sheets that are easy to install.

14. Windmill Tile Patterns

The windmill is a classic tiling pattern that can impact much visual appeal in your room space. The design produces a lovely contrast, especially if you have some tile to highlight. You should lay the brick tile for a frame-like feature around the central square tile. However, the design is labor-intensive but becomes easy when you master the rhythm. More interestingly, most of the mosaic tile comes with an already established pattern that reduces the effort you would require to complete the task.

15. Pinwheel Patterns

The pinwheel tile pattern is also known as Hopscotch and closely resembles the windmill. In this pattern, the square tile is surrounded by larger tiles to create the visual effect of a spinning wheel. It is possible to replace the individual small square tile with mosaic tiles.  The pattern gives a designer look that makes it trend among other flooring materials. However, you should be careful when choosing tiles for this pattern to provide the floor with a stylish appearance.

16. Hexagon Pattern

The hexagon tiling pattern is created by the hexagonal shape of the tile laid on your floor.  When mixed with the plain hexagon tiles, the resulting feature creates an exceptional stunning beauty with an ultimate effect. The tile designs came into popularity after the First World War, and the trend remains in both classic and contemporary patterns.

17. Chevron 

Chevron is one of the best tile patterns you can consider installing because it makes any room instantly classy. It’s popular in the market due to its impressive look. To achieve the design, you should lay the rectangular rows of tiles, with each row facing the opposite direction of the one adjacent to it. This results in a V-shape visual appearance. With the neat way the tiles fit together, the textured horizontal zigzag pattern and the central line where the V meets give an exceptional visual appeal that makes it one of the trendiest designs. However, you should use slightly contrasting colors conspicuously to define the zigzags. Sounds great? You can choose the pattern for your next project.

18. Cobblestone 

With this pattern, you should first lay the rectangular tiles in herringbone style followed by smaller square tiles around the edges to create a large design that you should repeat across the floor. Even though the tiles were more suited for traditional designs, the pattern is still a hotcake and ideal for your corridors and hallways.

19. English Bond and English Cross Bond Patterns

English bond uses rows of rectangular and square tiles arranged in an alternating manner. With this kind of tile pattern, the square tiles are at the center of the rectangular tile, with both ends lining up between rows.

On the other hand, the English cross bond is similar to the English bond, but the rectangular tile in alternating rows is in staggering designs like in the bricklaying.

Laying tile is one of the most exciting tasks that require a bit of creativity. If you’re laying floor tiles for the first time, you needn’t be in a hurry. Take time to choose the tile patterns that you want and execute. But remember to select the tile design that is not challenging for DIY. Also, remember to buy tiles of the same batch to avoid patches due to the variation in tile color. If you are not sure about your skills, don’t hesitate to contact All American flooring. With our team of specialists, we’ll handle your project with the utmost professionalism.